The Future Is Today

Why is the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk faster than the Dodge Demon?

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Dodge has unleashed a mighty machine upon the world. It’s not the 707-horsepower Challenger or Charger SRT Hellcat siblings, but rather the more powerful Challenger SRT Demon street-legal drag car that comes complete with its 840-horsepower 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine. It has so much power that it’s ready to run a 9.65-second quarter mile. Also, it’s slower than a Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk.

It comes down to this: some cars are fast and other cars are quick. Using these two machines as an example is an easy way to explain this and our friend Jason Fenske from Engineering Explained is here to do just that.

The Dodge Demon is extremely quick. In fact, it will accelerate from 0-60 mph in just 2.3 seconds. On the top end, however, the speed is limited to 168 mph due to the W speed rating of its purpose-built Nitto drag radials. The 707-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk isn’t as quick, but it’s most certainly faster.

The Jeep needs 3.5 seconds to accelerate from a standstill to 60 mph. Keep the throttle pressed, though, and you’ll find that the Trackhawk can hit 180 mph. That makes it faster than the Demon.

The Demon is focused on short-burst straight-line acceleration and that means it needs tremendous grip right off the line. To get that from the tires, performance had to be sacrificed at the other end.

Of course, you could slap high-speed-capable tires on the Demon and remove that limiter and it would be a different story. As the vehicles arrive from the factory, however, the Demon is quicker…but the Jeep is faster.